Graydon Carter on Charlie Rose: Being a Magazine Editor Is Like Being a Choirmaster

Carter, who was touting a new book out honoring his magazine’s 100th anniversary, had a wide-ranging conversation with Rose—and talked about the current state of his medium. “There are so many great magazines out there,” he said, sounding an upbeat note. “They’re inexpensive, you can buy them anywhere, you can give them to a friend after, you can recycle them, they don’t need batteries, they don’t need instructions, and they’re just wonderful. I love them more than newspapers, and I love them more than books, in a way.”

Rose asked Carter about his favorite contributors, including some of the photographers who have defined Vanity Fair’s visual tone (and who fill the pages of the anniversary tome Vanity Fair 100 Years: From the Jazz Age to Our Age). “Helmut Newton . . . he would show up at a shoot with a little Leica and no assistant and just sort of get the picture,” Carter explained. “And Annie [Leibovitz] is much more of a Cecil B. DeMille–like production. I mean, she’ll wait you out—you’ll think, ‘I’m going to give her a look,’ and she’ll wear you down until she gets you to give the look she wants rather than the look you want.” Contributor Mario Testino “makes people look incredibly elegant and beautiful,” he added, while “Bruce Weber makes a shoot look—whatever they’re doing—more fun than your life. And better looking.”

As for his own role, Carter explained that it was much akin to being a choirmaster. “You’re . . . trying to get the best out of everybody, and trying to get everybody to sing in unison.”

See below for Carter and Rose’s full conversation, in which they talk about restaurants, celebrities, technology, and even canoeing.